The present invention relates to a vehicle indicator lamp which radiates red light.
A vehicle indicator lamp such as a tail lamp, stop lamp, and rear fog lamp is structured to radiate red light to the front (front with respect to the lamp fixture and rear with respect to the vehicle body, hereinafter referred to as the front).
FIG. 4(a) shows a conventional indicator lamp that radiates red light and is structured as to reflect light from a light-source bulb 2 to the front as parallel light by a reflective surface 4a of a lamp body 4. This parallel reflected light is then diffused by a plurality of diffusion lens elements 6s formed on a red front lens 6 such that red light is radiated to the front of the lamp fixture in a predetermined light distribution pattern.
A lamp structure has recently been proposed wherein the reflective surface 4a of the lamp body 4 is formed of a plurality of diffusion and reflection elements 4s, as shown in FIG. 4(b), such that the light from the light-source bulb 2 is reflected to the front as diffused light. This makes it possible to form the front lens 6 of a red transparent lens, which in turn gives the lamp fixture a sense of transparency and makes it possible to achieve a predetermined light distribution pattern of red light.
However, conventional vehicle indicator lamps are unattractive in appearance. In particular, the lamp fixture of FIG. 4(a) includes a plurality of diffusion lens elements 6a formed on the front lens 6 so that the inner portion of the lamp fixture is difficult to see and therefore lacks a sense of transparency. In the lamp fixture in FIG. 4(b), despite a certain degree of a sense of transparency gained by using the transparent lens 6, the transparent lens 6 is colored red which makes it that much more difficult to see the inner portion of the lamp fixture such that the sense of transparency is not improved.